[Published: Saturday June 25 2022]
S. Africa’s Ramaphosa Could Have Done More to Curb Zuma-Era Corruption, Report
PRETORIA, 25 June. - (ANA) - The last damning findings of a four-year probe into state corruption in South Africa under ex-leader Jacob Zuma, published Wednesday, suggested that President Ramaphosa could have acted against some of the allegations against his predecessor.
Receiving the report Ramaphosa, who was then deputy to Zuma, described the graft as an “assault on our democracy.” The report was handed to Ramaphosa at his Pretoria offices by the head of the investigating panel and chief justice, Raymond Zondo.
The pillaging and mismanagement of South Africa’s state-owned enterprises during Zuma’s nine years in office, when Ramaphosa was his deputy, has been dubbed “state capture.” In all, it took more than 400 days for an investigating panel to collect testimonies from around 300 witnesses, including Ramaphosa. Ramaphosa’s answers to some questions about what he knew of the corrupt activities were “opaque” and “unfortunately leave some important gaps”, the report said.
And whether he could have acted to curb the graft, “the wealth of evidence before this commission suggests that the answer is yes”, it said. “There was surely enough credible information in the public domain... to at least prompt him to inquire and perhaps act on a number of serious allegations.
“As the Deputy President, he surely had the responsibility to do so.” Ramaphosa did not immediately respond to the contents of the report, but said it “provides us with an opportunity to make a decisive break with the era of state capture.” - (ANA) -
AB/ANA/25 June 2022 — - -
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